Love's Thundering Heart
by Kat Lee formerly Pirate Turner
Summary: Jack destroyed his heart and life when he let his beloved Will walk out on him. He's accepted that Will doesn't want him and loves Elizabeth instead, but Gibbs isn't so ready to let his boys ruin their lives forever.  Slash.


Title: "Love's Thundering Heart"  
>Author: Pirate Turner<br>Rating: PG-13  
>Summary: Jack destroyed his heart and life when he let his beloved Will walk out on him. He's accepted that Will doesn't want him and loves Elizabeth instead, but Gibbs isn't so ready to let his boys ruin their lives forever.<br>Warnings: Slash, Established Relationship, AU, One-sided Het  
>Word Count: 1,960<br>Date Written: 29 June, 2011  
>Challenge: DiteyBlessings LJ comm's monthly challenge for "What's said is said."<br>Disclaimer: Captain Jack Sparrow, Will Turner, Gibbs, all other characters mentioned within, the Black Pearl, and Pirates of the Caribbean are & TM Marvel comics and Disney, neither of which are the author. Everything else is & TM the author. The author makes absolutely no profit off of this work of fan fiction, and no copyright infringement is intended.

"There's nothin' tha' can be done 'bout it now," Jack slurred, swinging his tankard of rum through the air. "Just leave me be ta me own misery, Gibbs. Capt'ns," he hiccupped, "orders."

Gibbs smirked back at him. "Ye're hardly fit tae be givin' any orders right now, me boyo, but no matter," he shrugged, "ye'll be fit enough soon."

"Quit yer damn nonsense mutterin' an' jest gi away an' leave me alone!" Jack commanded, huffing. "Ye don't knae what th' Hell ye're talkin' 'bout!"

"Sometimes," Gibbs admitted with a twinkle in his eye, "but I know love when I see it, an' I know it's too powerful important fer ye tae be turnin' a blind eye tae it."

"Shuddup!" Jack commanded, slamming his tankard down onto the table. "Stop laughin' at me!"

Gibbs sighed, his smile almost breaking as he gazed down at the younger man who could not possibly be his son any more if they had shared the same blood. "Ah, Jack, din't ye see, boyo? I'm not laughin' at ye. I jest want ye tae get better, tae be happy."

"I can't be happy any more!" Jack snarled, his kohl-rimmed eyes flashing dangerously and the beads strewn throughout his long, black hair jangling in warning. "Me happiness is gone!"

"But ye could get it back," Gibbs tried to reason calmly. "All ye'd have tae do is go after th' lad. He'd come willingly tae ye."

"Th' Hell he would!" Jack growled. "Ye saw how wrapped up in little Miss Fancy Skirts he was! He didn't give a damn 'bout me!"

"Ah, but that's where ye'd be wrong, lad. I saw th' way he looked at ye. If ye'd bothered tae tell him how ye felt, he ne'er would have left."

Jack growled at him, his eyes narrowing. "He didn't feel th' same way, Gibbs, an' I don't knae why ye have tae keep puttin' us through this same argument an' why ye can't jest mind yer own damn business an' leave me th' Hell alone tae rot in me misery! Th' boy's married now! He wed th' trollop today! There's nothin' else can be done! What's said is said!"

"Ah," Gibbs started to comment. He paused as his well trained eyes caught movement in the shadows behind Jack. The regular inhabitants of the tavern had all shied away for they had all heard the rumors of how Captain Jack Sparrow became when he was angered and intoxicated, if not felt his cold steel against or rough hands around their very necks. They had learned the hard way to leave him alone, and even the scorned women who were displeased with him because they never held his interest had stopped coming around to slap him after he'd almost run his sword through one of the harlots.

But this was no woman coming through the shadows now, and Gibbs smiled, his eyes twinkling merrily, as he recognized the silhouette. The person he'd not seen in far too long came on silent, booted feet to stand quietly behind Jack, and Gibbs looked back to his adopted son.

"Sometimes," he said, "what is left unsaid is even more important. Ye should've told th' lad that ye love him."

Jack threw his tankard against the wall. "IT WOULD NAE HA'E DONE ANY GOOD!" he shouted. "WHAT PART O' THAT DON'T YE UNDERSTAND?"

"I understand," Gibbs countered smoothly, "that he came right away when I sent fer him."

Jack's mouth dropped open. He stilled as he gazed up at Gibbs in disbelief. "Ye did wha'?" he asked at last, the sound of his own heartbeat thundering in his ears.

"Is it true?" a quiet, timid voice asked from immediately behind the Pirate Captain, causing his eyes to nearly pop out of his head and his eyebrows to shoot upwards.

Jack spun around in his chair, almost falling out of it before leaping to his booted feet. He looked as though he'd seen a ghost as he stared in shock at the face he'd never thought to see again. "I-I-I-I - Is - wha' - That . . . is . . . - Hum . . . " He twisted nervous, ringed fingers through the beard that had grown even thicker since last they'd seen each other. "I mean to say - "

Will stepped boldly forward, cutting off the small distance that had still separated them. His deep, brown eyes gazed up into Jack's dark, worried orbs, and Jack felt himself drowning in the windows to his secret love's soul. "Gibbs wrote me," Will explained. "He sent for me. He said you missed me. He said you lo - " He almost choked on the word. He licked his lips and tried again. "He said you lov- "

"Aw, fer cryin' out loud!" Gibbs thundered, throwing his hands up into the air. "One o' ye won't do a damned thin' 'bout what th' two o' ye be feelin', an' th' other one comes all this way an' still can't say th' blasted word! Aye, Will, Jack loves ye! I wouldn't've wrote it if'n it wasn't true!"

Will's eyes darted from his beloved Jack to Gibbs and then back to Jack, who seemed almost paralyzed with fear. His eyes were the largest Will had ever seen them, and he looked as though he were staring straight into a cannon about to be fired. Will's own heartbeat pounded a deafening rhythm in his ears, and he knew that surely the whole room must hear the sound of his fear-filled heart. "Is it true?" he whispered breathlessly, his words barely audible.

He'd come all this way just to be with him again! Gibbs had told him he loved him, and now Will gazed at him not with anger, disgust, or hatred but with fear that all he had been told was a lie and hope that he'd been told right! Could he . . . Was it possible that Will could love him, that his heart could, in truth, belong to him instead of to that wretched Elizabeth who would never be worthy of his love?

Jack himself wasn't worthy, he knew, but he loved Will more than he knew how to say. Part of him wanted to shout the words out at the top of his lungs, and yet still fear clogged his throat. A squeak escaped from his mouth when he tried to tell him that he loved him, and inside his boots, hidden from view, his very feet shook. He'd never been this scared in all his life, and yet he had to tell him! He had come all this way for him! He'd left Elizabeth and come to him, because Gibbs had written to him and told him how he really felt! Surely he had to feel the same way, or else he'd not have come!

And yet still Jack could not seem to voice the words. He watched, his own heart going from leaping for joy to sinking towards his boots, as Will's face fell. "I should have known better - " he started to say and began to turn away.

Jack's eyes flashed. He had to do something, and he had to do it quick! He had to tell him the truth!

"Jack, damn it!" Gibbs growled behind him. "Ye'd better - " He stopped speaking and just smiled as Jack finally acted.

Jack sprang forward as Will started to turn his back to him, grabbed his arm, and pulled him back around. He wrapped his arms around him and touched his lips to his. He kissed him, pledging all that love he did not know how to speak and had began feeling for this wonderful, handsome, and remarkably sweet man since first they'd met. His heartbeat pounded fearfully within him, and he was sure Will could hear its thundering, fear-filled rhythm.

Will's heart soared. Tears of relief and joy sprang into his brown eyes. His arms wrapped around Jack, his hands caressing every inch of his fine and sensual body they encountered, and he leaned in to the kiss. He kissed him back, his lips opening underneath Jack's tender, loving onslaught and allowing his tongue to dive home into his mouth. His own tongue twisted against his, and he cradled the answering rise he felt in his beloved's trousers with his own matching sword.

He wanted to touch Will everywhere at once! He ran his hands up and down his body before finally clasping on to his handsome face. His fingers caressed the hardened lines of his jaw, cheeks, and forehead, and his thumbs drew softly across his tanned skin. He didn't know how to say it. He'd been too afraid to tell Will how he truly felt for far too long, but now they no longer had a need for words. He pulled him harder against him, rocking his body against his, and then he dipped him.

Gibbs nodded, his approving grin shining in the candlelight. "It's 'bout damn time."

The women of the tavern whispered loudly amongst themselves as most of the men turned away in disgust. Even those who did not like what they were seeing dared not voice their opinions lest they feel the cold steel of Captain Jack Sparrow's blade against their throats, but there were those, Jack's crew counted among them, who had seen the toll losing his beloved Will had taken on the great Pirate Captain and others who simply recognized and honored the beauty of true love when they saw it. The musicians began to play, and somewhere in the crowd, some one began to clap. Soon those who looked on to the scene of beauty were kicking their heels against the floor and clapping loudly and joyously, their applause only drowned out to the soul mates by the ecstatic pounding of their own heartbeats.

When their kiss finally broke off, they continued standing against each other, cuddling as they stood, their arms still wrapped firmly around one another. Jack's forehead rested against Will's, and their eyes sparkled joyfully at each other as they gazed into one another's loving depths. "Ye came back," Jack breathed, running his fingers into Will's soft brown hair.

"I never would have left if you'd told me."

Jack nodded, realizing at long last that he was the one who had caused himself so much heartache. Later, a part of him would reason that Will could have told him just as he could have told him, but that would never matter. What mattered to both men was that the time for heartache was over, their lives were beginning anew now that their love was in the open, and, of course, most of all, that they loved each other. "I should've," Jack admitted. "I love ye, Will!"

"And I love you, Jack! You're the Captain of my heart, always have been, and always will be!" This time, Will dipped his beloved Captain as he kissed him passionately amongst the growing applause, and when they let up that time, Jack beat a hasty retreat, with his beloved Will in his arms, straight to his waiting Pearl. They stayed on the Pearl together forever, only venturing onto land as needed and always, regardless of rather on land or on their ship, side by side. They loved each other alone for all eternity and beyond, and from that day forward, they never again wasted a single second of showing one another just how truly and infinitely much they really did love each other.

And as for Gibbs, he, too, had never been happier than he was watching his boy living joyfully with the man he loved. He spent the rest of his days with his family upon their ship, watching over both of his sons and protecting and celebrating love everywhere they found it.

**The End**


End file.
